George Santos Settles With CFTC Over Suspicious Prediction Market Trades

Disgraced former Congressman George Santos has agreed to a $35,000 settlement with federal investigators, resolving an inquiry into suspicious trades he made on the prediction marketplace Kalshi. The agreement addresses bets Santos placed against his own plans to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

The onetime Republican lawmaker from New York stated he settled with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission to "put this matter behind him," while maintaining he did not admit to any wrongdoing.

His lawyer, Joseph Murray, echoed this sentiment in a statement shared by Santos on X, asserting: "He chose a prompt, practical resolution, rather than protracted, costly litigation, and that choice should not be mistaken for admission of any wrongdoing, because it is not one."

The commission confirmed Friday that the settlement requires Santos to forfeit the more than $17,000 he allegedly earned through the unlawful trading, pay a $17,500 fine, and serve a three-year trading ban.

Kalshi, which had reported Santos to regulators, said it will also pursue its own enforcement action and work to reimburse traders if monetary penalties are recovered.

Leading up to Trump's February speech, Santos had talked frequently about his plans to be in the crowd. But minutes into the speech, he posted on X to say that he had been waylaid at the airport and couldn’t make it to Capitol Hill.

Social media users called him out, noting that Kalshi had put the odds of Santos attending the address at close to 75%.

Santos shrugged off the complaints at the time.

“I guess people lost money,” he said on his podcast in March. “Some people made unexpected money. That’s to show you how fragile these markets are.”

But the federal probe into the Kalshi trading prompted rival online prediction platform Polymarket to cut ties with Santos in June.

Santos’ lawyer, in his statement Friday, said his client had a “genuine intention” to attend the State of the Union, even booking a hotel and plane ticket before a winter storm scuttled the plans.

“Mr. Santos concealed neither his intention to attend, nor his change of plans to not attend the SOTU, from anyone," Murray said. “There was absolutely no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market."

Santos, who is set to appear on Fox’s reality contest “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” this fall, shot to political fame after winning a seat representing parts of the New York City borough of Queens and Long Island.

But his bogus life story of being a wealthy Wall Street player with a college degree and other accomplishments quickly unraveled.

Santos was eventually expelled from Congress and charged with federal wire fraud and identity theft charges as investigators probed how he funded his campaign. He pleaded guilty and served less than three months of a more than seven-year sentence before Trump granted him clemency last year.